Mayor Justin Bibb discussed lakefront development with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg this summer as Cleveland City Hall hashes out a future for the Lake Erie shoreline.
They spoke June 24, when the secretary was visiting Northeast Ohio, the mayor’s office said. Details on the talks are minimal. City Hall would only say that Bibb updated Buttigieg about “lakefront vision and plans.”
No meeting with Buttigieg appears in the mayor’s public calendar for June 24. But a brief preparation session for the meeting does show up on Bibb’s schedule for June 21.
Cleveland has plenty of lakefront matters of interest to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The city is pursuing a federal grant for the long-sought land bridge connecting downtown to the lake. Then there’s the possibility of expanded Amtrak service through Ohio.
Perhaps the biggest Lake Erie fish of them all is the potential closure of Burke Lakefront Airport. Cleveland officials have said they are nearing a decision on the airport’s fate. If the city does move to close the airport, it would need the feds’ blessing. Bibb met in May with an official from the Federal Aviation Administration, an agency within the Transportation Department.
City Hall may be saying little about the meeting, but Buttigieg’s office is saying even less. The Transportation Department did not answer Signal Cleveland’s requests for information about the discussion.
